The fabrication of integrated circuits (ICs) in the semiconductor industry typically employs plasma to create and assist surface chemistry within a plasma reactor necessary to remove material from and deposit material onto a substrate. For example, plasma can be utilized with physical vapor deposition (PVD) to sputter material from a target and deposit the sputtered adatom onto the substrate, with chemical vapor deposition (CVD) to create chemical constituents suitable for deposition upon a substrate, or with dry plasma etching to create chemical constituents suitable for the removal of specific materials from the surface of a substrate.
In general, during plasma processing such as in the aforementioned processes, excess sputtered adatom in PVD systems, excess deposition chemistry in CVD systems, or excess etch chemistry and/or etch residue in etch systems can deposit on process system surfaces and accumulate from process-to-process. Therefore, such systems are commonly equipped with protective elements or liners that protect the underlying surfaces of more expensive processing components, and that can be replaced periodically with deposit-free, cleaned, refurbished, or new protective elements. Typically, the frequency for element replacement is governed by the type of process, and the nature of the material or film that accumulates on the exposed surfaces of the protective elements. Hence, it is additionally imperative to provide surfaces in contact with the processing environment that facilitate the adhesion of excess materials, and, in time, reduce contamination of future processes (i.e. particles, etc.) and potentially provide longer cycles between replacement of the protective elements.
Further, it is not uncommon to encounter an evolution of processing system configuration (i.e. change in size of processing chamber, pumping system, etc.) during the lifetime of a processing system. Typically, the continual evolution of a processing system as a manufacturing product has required an inventory of protective elements, each element or set of elements specific to a particular configuration. Hence, it is also imperative to provide low cost, replaceable protective elements that possess sufficient flexibility for use in a processing system having multiple configurations.